If all these people were slaughtered by enemies, and he lost his supply of Providence Points, he would also find himself treading on thin ice and struggling to move forward in the Immortal Realm.

That was why Alex had never rushed things.

But right now, the situation had improved considerably. Setting aside the fact that most Hale family disciples had already far surpassed the juniors of the same generation in other clans, just talking about Cedric and Tobias alone, they had consecutively broken through to the Supreme Realm a few days ago.

Add to that Lara, as well as the Saint Lords of the four branch families, and even without him present, the Hale family possessed seven Supreme Realm experts.

Among all the Saint Lineage families, this absolutely secured their existence in a league of their own.

Furthermore, with the relationship between the Heavenly Flame Empress and himself, if he left, she would definitely provide the Hale family with the dual protection of martial force and connections.

The current Hale family, even without him as the Saint Lord, was already powerful enough to stand on its own.

"The only concern now is that Knox, and the remaining twenty-something percent of Luck on his body." Alex narrowed his eyes, silently pondering in his heart.

"His Protagonist Halo will absolutely not be resigned to its host being slapped away by me, slap by slap. Before his Luck is completely stripped away, there will definitely be an unprecedented, insane counterattack."

"As long as I withstand this counterattack, I can safely prove my Dao, become a Saint, and ascend to the Immortal Realm."

...

By the time Alex returned to the Holy Land, it was already late at night.

As soon as he arrived, he felt streams of unfamiliar and powerful auras permeating everywhere throughout the Holy Land. Presumably, the people coming to offer congratulations had all arrived a day early and were staying overnight.

Alex thought about it, and finding no one worth him specifically going to greet, he headed back to the Saint Lord’s Hall first. Returning to the hall, Cedric was inside arranging the various matters for tomorrow, so busy he was completely overwhelmed.

Seeing Alex arrive, he immediately stood up, his face looking like he wanted to cry but had no tears.

"Saint Lord, you’ve finally returned. I’m about to die from being so busy over here."

Looking at Cedric’s miserable appearance, Alex couldn’t help but feel secretly amused.

As the Saint Lord, he wandered outside all year round and could already be considered a hands-off boss.

Second Elder Adrian was constantly responsible for monitoring Knox under his orders.

Third Elder Tobias was a man of the Dao, always like an idle cloud or a wild crane, a divine dragon whose head is seen but not its tail.

Fourth Elder Lara was wholeheartedly devoted to alchemy, uniformly ignoring everything that wasn’t related to pharmacology.

All things considered, the burden of most Hale family affairs fell squarely onto the shoulders of Cedric.

It was truly hard on this First Elder, terribly busy every single day, managing ten thousand affairs. If the family didn’t have him, it would probably fall apart.

"Cedric, this year’s Heaven Sacrifice Ceremony is quite grand. You’ve truly worked hard." Alex patted Cedric’s shoulder for encouragement, then smiled faintly.

"As soon as I arrived at the Holy Land, I felt that the guests should have already arrived, right? Come, bring the guest registration list for me to take a look."

"Yes!" Cedric immediately rummaged out a register and handed it over, smiling bitterly.

"Saint Lord, this year is exactly your five-hundredth year holding the position of Saint Lord. There are truly a lot of people coming to celebrate. Our guest rooms are fundamentally not enough to house everyone. There was no other way. I had to let some junior disciples squeeze together to vacate some cave dwellings so these guests could stay for the night."

Alex nodded, opened the list, flipped through it for a moment, and nodded with a satisfied smile.

In previous years, the first two names on the list would definitely be the Blackwood and Sol families.

But this year, Alistair and Malakai had a falling out with him over the matter of the capital. They didn’t even attend Aurelia’s gratitude banquet. Naturally, it was impossible for them to give him this face either.

However, even without those two heavyweights, this year’s guest list could still be called luxurious.

First of all, aside from the Blackwood and Sol families, the other Saint Lineage families had basically all sent elders to attend.

For the relatively stronger Mire and Fen families, their Patriarchs, Ziven Mire and Thalen Wren, even personally led their groups. Needless to say, it was definitely to repay the lifesaving grace from the Heavenly Flame Secret Realm previously.

Furthermore, the various sects of the Heavenly Flame Dynasty had also sent representatives.

Most of these sects didn’t have foundations as deep as the Saint Lineage families, but their overall forces were larger.

Between sects and Saint Lineage families, they basically maintained a relationship where well water does not interfere with river water. In the past, only three to five sects with a relatively good relationship would come to congratulate.

But this year, a full seventy-two sects had sent people.

For many sects, the Sect Master personally led the group.

The Moon Brilliance Sect Master Renis, the Hundred Beasts Sect Master Brook, the Heaven Guarding Sect Master Reed. Basically all of the top fifty sects in the Heavenly Flame Dynasty had arrived.

If it were someone who didn’t know the inside story, they would probably think they were here to participate in the Grand Sect Competition.

What surprised Alex even more was that there were shockingly also people from other dynasties on this guest list.

The Fourth Prince of the Feather Imperial Family, Aelin Feather, the Eldest Princess of the Star Imperial Family, Kaia Star, and the Old Royal Uncle of the Crimson Soaring Dynasty, Sylas.

These big shots, who could shake half the sky just by stomping their feet in their respective dynasties, had all actually gathered within their Hale family Holy Land at this moment. This was completely unprecedented in the past!